Many governments are interested in suppressing the black market for tobacco products. Therefore, these governments often ask the tobacco companies to track master cases, cartons or even single cigarettes packets from the factories to the first purchasers of these products.
Normally, cigarette packets are sold to a first purchaser in cases that contain between 50 and 2000 cigarette packets. Before the cigarette packets are packed into the case, an intermediate step often takes place, in which several cigarette packets are first packed into a carton. Then, a constant number of cartons are packed into the case. The number of cigarette packets in the carton and the number of cartons in the case may both be in the range between 10 and 100.
A conventional method to track a carton with several cigarette packets from the factory to its first purchaser comprises the steps of providing a carton code on the carton and providing a case code on the case in which the carton is packed. Generally, the carton code and the case code are both machine-readable codes. During the cigarette packaging process, the carton code is linked to the case code of the case in which the carton is packed. Then, the identity of the first purchaser of the case is linked to the corresponding case code in a database when the first purchaser orders the case or during the dispatch process. Thus, it is possible to track the carton to its first purchaser.
The production speed of cartons of an average factory is in the range of 80 to 120 cartons per minute. The number of cigarette packs produced per minute by an average factory is much higher. A typical production unit with high-speed machines produces between 800 and 1200 cigarette packets per minute. It is expected that such a production unit will get even faster and that the number of cigarette packets produced per minute will increase in the future.
Due to the high production speed of an average manufacturing unit, it is hardly possible to track an individual cigarette packet to its first purchaser. Furthermore, the difficulties of tracking an individual cigarette packet to its first purchaser are increased by the fact that often different generations of cigarette producing machines are used in a manufacturing unit.
Therefore, even though the tracking of cartons is already feasible today, the tracking of an individual cigarette packet from the factory to its first purchaser is not yet possible.
US 2001/0032138 A1 and EP 1 134 679 A2 both describe a method of providing taxable product information and a corresponding tracking system. To track individual packs of a product, for instance cigarette packets, to a purchaser, it is suggested to provide identifying indicia such as a laser code or a mark on each pack. Preferably, the identifying indicia may comprise a serial number, wherein all packs packed into the same carton may have the same serial number. Thus, it is possible to link a pack with a carton sold to its purchaser. However, the method and the system described in US 2001/0032138 A1 and EP 1 134 679 A2 are very time-consuming and therefore hardly usable with regard to the high production speed of an average cigarette manufacturing unit.
EP 1 645 992 A1 describes a method of marking manufacturing items wherein each single manufacturing item is provided with a unique code. The codes for the items are provided by a general distributor, e.g. via a secured internet connection or on a CD-ROM. The method of EP 1 645 992 A1 provides an opportunity of tracking an item marked according to the marking method from the customer back to the production unit. However, EP 1 645 992 A1 does not provide a method of tracking a single cigarette packet from the production unit to a certain purchaser.
Furthermore, DE 199 51 140 A1 describes a method of controlling the integrity of a single cigarette packet. Nevertheless, the method described in DE 199 51 140 A1 is not suited for tracking a single cigarette packet from a production unit to a first purchaser.
According to the prior art, it is hardly possible and extremely time-consuming to link a cigarette packet packed into a carton to a master case, in which the carton with the cigarette packet is packed.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an opportunity for tracking a single cigarette packet from its production unit to a first purchaser.